Many known recording systems provide programming information in the form of Electronic Program Guides (EPG) to the recording system. Some EPGs are broadcast continuously such as those from the cable operator while others are downloaded to the recording system on some periodic basis. Many EPGs are interactive and let the user select a program to record from the EPG by moving a highlighted cursor to a program name and selecting the program.
Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) are becoming increasingly popular such as the TIVO personal video recorder. PVRs use a hard drive to record programs rather than using a tape such as in a VCR. The PVRs also use EPGs and make a daily phone call to download the EPG. The user scrolls through the PVR""s EPG to select programs that are to be recorded. These systems simplify the recording process by no longer requiring the user to enter the date, start time, length, and channel number of the program to be recorded. Instead, by scrolling through the EPG, the user selects the title that the user wishes to record. The PVR automatically knows the date, start time, length and channel number from the EPG and records the program.
There are problems with the known systems. Since the program information is loaded on some periodic basis such as early in the morning every day, any subsequent change to that day""s schedule is not know to the EPG. This leads to cases when material is unsuccessfully recorded such as when material not requested gets recorded and material requested does not get recorded. For example, when a baseball game extends to 15 innings instead of the normal 9, the game can run 2-3 hours over schedule, preempting other programs that the user may wish to record. The PVR will end up recording the late innings of this game instead of the original program the user wanted recorded. There is no way to detect whether the PVR recorded the incorrect program so that it can record the rescheduled program in the future.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a recording device that will automatically record any rescheduled shows that were originally intended to be recorded but due to rescheduling or errors in the EPG they were not recorded.
It is another object of the invention to send a corrected version of the previous day""s EPG to the recording device. The recording device will then detect when it recorded an incorrect show and either delete the show and/or set itself up again to record the rescheduled show by searching the EPG for the rescheduled show.
It is a further object of the invention to send a complete corrected EPG and the recording device will compare the previously sent EPG to the corrected EPG to find discrepancies.
It is yet another object of the invention to send only the changes to the previous day""s EPG to the recording device.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.
The invention accordingly comprises the several steps and the relation of one or more of such steps with respect to each of the others, and the apparatus embodying features of construction, combinations of elements and arrangement of parts that are adapted to effect such steps, all as exemplified in the following detailed disclosure, and the scope of the invention will be indicated by the claims.